March 2008 - Old Movies

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Old Movies - March 2008

Sci-Fi Movies done in Russian woodcut style

March 10th 2008 07:47

This Russian artist came up with a set of illustrations that depicts classic sci-fi movies as old Russian woodcut panels.

It's a fantastic idea, and if I could read Russian, I'm sure I'd have a lot of information for you.

All we can do is look, and guess what the artist had in mind.

Take, for example, this incredible panel of "The War of the Worlds", complete with deathray action.

War of the World in Russian wood cut folk art

It's not just sci-fi, I realized... there's "Bloodsport" and "Harry Potter"...

I think it's a terrific idea - a woodcut should be made for all your favourite movies!

(found on BoingBoing)

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Posted By: Cibbuano - Category: Science Fiction

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There Will Be Blood

March 1st 2008 05:05

I just watched There Will Be Blood... fuuuuuuuuck. Daniel Day-Lewis is like a massive dick in everyone's arse, that's how good he is. Should this film have beaten No Country for Old Men to the best picture gong in the Oscars? I'm not sure, but if there was ever cause for a tie, this was it. Here, let me sum up the movie for you...

14 minutes of no dialogue. Daniel Day-Lewis strikes oil. He becomes a mad cunt, takes on a son, goes head to head with a local evangelical preacher (played by manchild Paul Dano), and basically amasses the beginnings of a business empire soaked and dripping in the blackest sheen of oil you could possibly imagine. Day-Lewis's eyes shine with this blackness, he embodies the evil of greed like no one else on screen ever has - not Bogart in Treasure of the Sierra-Madre, not Michael Douglas in Wall Street - these guys are chumps next to this cold-hearted sociopath.

The strange thing is, thinking back on what I just saw, this movie isn't exactly filled with mayhem or gangster-style violence or any of the other hallmarks that populate today's films dealing with base emotions or the concept of evil. The director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has achieved something incredibly impressive... he's built a film of atmosphere and dread without resorting to cheap tricks or laboured psychological ponderings. Armed with the twin arsenal of Day-Lewis's event horizon of a performance and a wonderfully ominous musical score, Anderson has crafted a deceptively simplistic film that stands out amongst it's peers as a unique, one-of-a-kind experience. I'm gobsmacked that this film even got made, and incredibly grateful that it did - it reassures film fans everywhere that a director's non-studio friendly vision can make it to the screen unmolested. (Provided Daniel Day-Lewis has agreed to star in it, LOL)

Scenes that stick out in my mind...
- Day-Lewis dragging himself through the scrub to stake his claim, ignoring his broken leg the whole time.
- Paul Dano striding alongside a lake of oil, like Christ walking on water as black as the hearts of men.
- Day-Lewis rejoicing in the flames cast by an erupted oil well, a stark silhouette in the dusk.
- Day-Lewis calmly getting off the train before it rolls away, probably one of the coldest things he does in the whole film.
- Of course, the final scene between Day-Lewis and Dano.

Go watch a piece of film history.